The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1918. "KEEP OFF THE RAILWAYS."

Taihape Daily Times, 5 February 1918, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1918. "KEEP OFF THE RAILWAYS."

(With which is incorporated The Tai hapo Post and Waimarino News).

No public service in New Zealand is condemned and anathematised mere loudly and frequently than • that under the control of the Railway Department. It has demonstrated its incapacity to an extreme in coping with war conditions while other departments have with more or less succes managed to keep the public busines going despite the fact that they have been inconvenienced quite as severely, if not more so, by the various war enactments. The "Auckland Herald" has . started a slogan that so splendidly characterises the policy of the Railway Department that it is now in most people's mouths. "Keep off the trains" is heard with such frequency as to constitute a public condemnation of railway management dT the severest kind. In no other Department is such commercial crassness practiced; no other Department so clamantly cries for a sane Conduct of its business; no other Department shows such utter disregard for public convenience; no other Department exhibits the Prussian spirit of control as it does, and whatever colour the next Government may be, whether Liberal, Labour, or Revolutionary, we are certain of railway improvement if any ■change is made, for it cannot well be worse_ Our Auckland contemporary says the "Keep off the Railways" stupidity of the Department is now being effectively carried out on the Main Trunk Line; the Department is constantly giving evidence that it has no sense of its duty to the community. War conditions have been exaggerated into an excuse for denying services that were grudgingly given in peace time. All sorts "of obstacles are put in the way of using the railways for legitimate purposes, and despite this cry from Auckland matters are rushing from bad to worse. Railway freights are responsible for a greater rise in the cost of living than one would suppose Poor people a few weeks ago could purchase in the cheapest market, but the Railway Department has now put a stop to that. It was a common practice to~send to warehouses for minimum sized parcels of tea and other commodities, which the merchant addressed and packed In one case and forwarded to one person. The Minister of Railways has now, however, set his officers to pry into such cases, and if he finds parcels bearing addresses other than that on the exterior of the case double rates are charged, with a minimum charge as for-quarter of a ton. The workingman's wife can no longer-go to outside markets for her five-pound box of tea or for other goods in company with her neighbour or neighbours and have the purchases enclosed in one case because the Department will charge railage at double tariff on a minimum of a quarter of a ton. An example given by the Department shows that the encouragement of household thrift and prudence in the workingman's home is no part "of its business or philosophy in the great struggle against the perpetual upward move- i ment of the cost of" living. Half-a-dozen homes can no longer get a mixed case of goods from Wellington Wanganui, or Palmerston, one wanting a box of tea. another fifty of flour, another a little ironmongery, and so on from the various firms who deal In the respective goods, because the Department penalises such careful buying; it doubles the railage costs on a minimum of quarter-of-a-ton. it is shown that a comparatively small

case, the r milage 0 n which according to ordinai.*y tariff was four shillings, cost the 'unfortunate consignees over twentv shillings. It air depends upon the nuiaiber of addressees; if there is only one addressee ordinary" railage is tLi.iged, but if there are two n~ cvoro addressees the Department i charges just what ir likes. In fa";t, in seme instances officials can even a.Hiumo that goods a re f° r more f han one addressee, and penalise to any extent, just as their powers of imagination dictate. Is there a business mind in this country, or any other, that can imagine anything more absurd or disgusting. The charge for goods on our railways now depends upon the number of names in a case, not on the weight or size of the case as hitherto. It has not yet been notified that a grocer must not get a case of tea at ordinary railage unless he undertakes to sell it all to one person, but to be logical the Department must issue such a notification. Such commercial trickery is not only contemptible but it is dangerous. These iool departments will not realise that they are baiting a people that are on the verge of venting a terrible revenge. While they howl about shortage of laoour as being the cause of converting a public convenience into a * public annoyance, the Railway Department, is making its men into spies and detectives, to pry into cases" of goods on a name hunt to find excuses for railage robbery. Not only is labour thus wasted in a dishonest quest but a separate consignment note has to be made out to every good lady who has a small parcel in the collective case. Of course the Department's -new decree is an extension of the policy indicated in "Keep off the Railways." The small cloud is visible in the English heavens but our railway and other profiteers are smugly indifferent behind the Ministerial, "Let my officers alone;" they do not see anything ominous in what is taking place in Britain as the result of similar foolhardiness, the sum total of which is on the point of being a load too heavy for a long-suffering people to carry. Why cannot people conduct their business with commonsense and common honesty? The Railway Departments's idea of charging on the number of names instead of on the weight of the goods is-. not honest, and it will'result in the railways being compelled to carry small parcels through the Postal Department, and not only that but it will entail delivery to the addressee at a much less cost than the railage would come to if railed by the addressor. A resident wished to rail a parcel to Utiku a few days ago, a case in which the new absurdity is thrown into high light. He found that he could travel by train to Utiku with the parcel and return to Taihape at less cost than he could despatch the .parcel alone for, It is time such absurdities and anomalies are rendered impossible by the adoption of saner commercial methods, at least by the trading departments run by our Government presumably in the public interest.